Flying Quilts

Flying Quilts (Pooling Efforts the Colourful Way)
Underprivileged women skilled in making indigenous quilts came together to form a Tanishka Group and pooled their efforts to manufacture at a larger scale. God-send Amy Godfrey, who has a legacy of empowering women to build on their skills and giving them market access, opened up the Australian markets for this group and more than doubled their earnings per piece. But this was only the beginning.

KRA
Pooling the efforts and skills of local women to create an industry that would cater to the world.

Underprivileged women from Malegaon Taluka, who were skilled at making indigenous quilts, came together to form a Tanishka Group. Making quilts was an age-old skill they had learned from their mothers and grandmothers. These quilts were made from old clothing like sarees, sweaters, soft materials, etc., but would take hours or even days to stitch one. Taking Neelma Mishra, a Magsaysay Award Winner as inspiration, these women decided to pool their efforts to start a handicraft venture. Soon, they became skilled enough to stitch one quilt in 6 hours flat. During the first year, they succeeded in selling 1000 quilts at US$ 10 to 12 each. Then, they met Amy Godfrey, who has a legacy of empowering women and giving them market access. Seeing these women’s determination, Amy opened her country’s markets. She got them an order from Australia that more than doubled their earnings to US$ 30+ per piece. This was a big leap and the ladies scaled up the production.

This experience taught these women to source raw materials, do quality assessments, negotiate with suppliers and look for newer markets all over the world. Mrs. Vaishali Desai, the leader of this Tanishka Forum, had a brother working in Saudi Arabia. With his help, she soon started exploring and promoting the quilts in this new market as well. Earlier, these women’s world was their village; now, they are scaling the world, exploring business opportunities all over, making it a global village.